Habit: The 95% of Behavior Marketers Ignore

2. You Are of Two Minds (At Least)

How do your marketing efforts interact with your customer’s brain? Theories of consumer behavior were first articulated in the 1960s and were based on the prevailing psychological theories of that time. I was privileged to have worked with Dr. Jagdish Sheth for several years. Jag and his mentor, Professor John Howard, published the first book on consumer behavior. Cognitive psychology was in its infancy and MRI’s were years away, so their theories were based on sketchy information, at best. But their work was highly influential and shaped much of marketing thought for decades. To understand marketing’s successes and failures, we need to update our marketing ideas with what we now know about the brain’s inner ...